Play As Work

The social networks that are created within the game have various implications for immaterial labour. The distinction between play and work has blurred over time due to the increases in new technology and the creation of games such as World of Warcraft.

One of the major issues surrounding massively multiplayer online games is the selling of avatars and the ‘farming’ of game resources. Gamers can create an account with Blizzard and use that account to develop high-level avatars, equipped with powerful weapons and then sell these accounts to make a profit in real life. Similarly, gamers have been known to sell virtual World of Warcraft gold on eBay to make a real life profit. This is commonly known as ‘gold farming' - players creating gold within a game account to sell to others for real-world money. This is usually accomplished through repetitive, high resource earning, in-game actions, achieved through game hacking. These ‘farmers’ create accounts for this sole purpose and make a profit in the real world. Such companies are known as ‘shops’. Blizzard has subsequently closed down several farming accounts due to its strict policing of the realms. However, there is an obvious discrepancy between farming statistics in the USA than in Europe, with virtual gold in Europe being traded at a smaller exchange rate than that of the USA (Sheffield University).

Although this may be the case, social networking has little effect on this form of immaterial labour. Its main influence is that the social networks provide potential customer to sell such items to and therefore enable ‘farming’ companies to meet gamers within the game to whom they can sell their material. Most ‘shops’ do not however operate in this manner. It is more common for them to ‘spam’ general communication chains with announcements on gold prices and other items of value. Therefore, they spend little time cultivating social relationships within the games.

However, on the other hand, social networks themselves cannot be bought and sold - they are less tangible than avatars. Each character would most likely have a list of ‘friends’ and ‘guild members’ who have been potential contacts of the original gamer, but the relationship that the gamer would have had with each of them is unique and cannot be replicated and transferred. The avatar itself does not hold the reputation and status that the original player has created for it (Humphries, 2005:41). Even if the new gamer poses as the original, contacts will eventually uncover the truth and these relationships would not only sour with the new player, but could also be detrimental for the original, tainting his reputation.

Perhaps the greatest impact that in-game social networking achieves on immaterial labour is that with every person met, comes new opportunities for real-world employment. Similar to real-world networking, acquaintances can inform friends about job opportunities and even offer them jobs. By expanding their online network, gamers increase the chances of befriending potential work colleagues and contacts from across the globe. Cases have arisen in many games whereby players who create modifications for games are later employed by gaming companies to replicate their ‘mods’ and ‘skins’ for mass production (De Peuter 2005:9). These ‘modders’ use authoring tools which have been packaged with many games to create new designs for scenarios, such as weaponry, missions and appearance. Gaming companies have subsequently re-purchased these modifications to incorporate them into the design of the game, creating employment opportunities for their creators (De Peuter 2005:9). Therefore, people can use play as a platform to find work and can even be deemed to be ‘working’ through their employment search. It is only through these relationships that these possibilities are created as strong social connections can result in bountiful opportunities for many. Through World of Warcraft, the potential for networking with like-minded individuals is increased, therefore in turn increasing the potential for building strong relationships, and consequently increasing job opportunities for the gamer.